DAVID MOYES will dream there can be more significant victories for Everton to savour this season – but, from a personal point of view, few are likely to be sweeter.

As he cavorted near the middle of the pitch, flinging his arms in the air with all the co-ordination of a Christmas reveller, his mood was only partly explained by the timing of last-gasp goals from Steven Pienaar and Nikica Jelavic which left Goodison Park rocking to a raucous beat.

The Everton boss would probably deny as much publicly, but seeing his merits casually overlooked by Tottenham in favour of Andre Villas-Boas in the summer will have irked him, given the job he has done and the challenges he has overcome for more than a decade.

Making his point by taking all three will have been as welcome as it had looked unlikely when normal time elapsed with Clint Dempsey’s deflected goal for Spurs separating the sides.

Everton replaced Tottenham in fourth place in the table in the process and it is days such as this that will imbue confidence for the remainder of the campaign.

The position does not shame us given the way we have been playing

David Moyes

“The position does not shame us given the way we have been playing,” said Moyes. “It feels good, but we have to maintain it.”

In stark contrast, Villas-Boas wore the look of a man who had seen it all before. He had departed in defeat on his last visit, although back in February he left a condemned man as Chelsea slumped to an anaemic 2-0 defeat and he endured disgruntled chants of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’.

It is far from that stage in his Premier League reincarnation, but the sight of his side collapsing at the death bore a familiar look.

Tottenham have now conceded 10 goals in the last 15 minutes of matches. If the final whistle sounded in their games after 80 minutes, they would be sitting at the summit of the table with 34 points, ahead of both Manchester clubs. An inability to see out games hints at a weakness in their make-up that needs rectifying sooner rather than later if Villas-Boas is not to come under scrutiny again.

What will concern him is that he also has other problems to unravel.

Too many players melted into the background when, in the absence of the injured Gareth Bale, the visitors needed people to assume extra responsibility.

Emmanuel Adebayor sometimes held the ball up, but on other occasions made life too easy for his markers. Aaron Lennon left his manager wanting more long before he was eventually withdrawn.

His replacement, Tom Huddlestone. was at least involved in a scarcely deserved breakthrough after 76 minutes when feeding Dempsey. The American, who had spent the summer dreaming of making an impact on Merseyside – albeit at Liverpool – let fly from 25 yards and saw his effort loop off the toe of Sylvain Distin and float over keeper Tim Howard.

Had Gylfi Sigurdsson’s effort from distance gone under the crossbar rather than hitting it, it is doubtful that Everton could have clambered off the canvas to land the telling punches.

It would be interesting to hear exactly why Spurs chairman Daniel Levy did not bother placing Moyes on his wanted list, especially given the stardust he has sprinkled in the transfer market was evident here.

Kevin Mirallas was a constant threat before suffering a recurrence of the hamstring injury that had kept him out for six weeks and departed at the interval. Then there was Darron Gibson, a £250,000 buy last January, whose clever distribution kept Spurs pinned back in the first half.

It is up to the midfielder how he wants his career to be remembered – ex of Manchester United or the player who added impetus to an Everton renaissance.

Yesterday he belonged in the latter category, but the challenge is for him to maintain such standards.

But for all their superiority, Everton were initially left frustrated as chances went begging and there was the customary refereeing controversy as Pienaar’s cross struck William Gallas’s arm but no penalty was given.

But then came late salvation. Tottenham lost possession and when Steven Naismith transferred the ball to Seamus Coleman, he crossed and Pienaar headed home on the run to register Everton’s 1,000th goal in the Premier League.

Number 1,001 was to follow within seconds. Substitute Apostolos Vellios failed to properly connect with an overhead kick to Gibson’s centre, but there was Jelavic to instinctively touch the ball home.

“It is not easy to explain why we concede late on, but it is something we need to improve on,” said Villas-Boas. “It is small details.”

He had remarked in the build-up that management can leave you looking a thoroughbred one week and a donkey the next. This was a kick in the ass.